The Mandate of Khaos: Bad Boys, Bad Boys (ch. 3)

"Sister..." Sona's voice came out strained through clenched teeth. "You're embarrassing me. Please leave."

Of course it would turn out like this, she thought with resignation.

Sona Sitri—Souna Shitori now—was (according to her sister) a very cute girl. In her own estimation, she was merely a cute girl. She was neither blind nor self-deprecating. Modesty aside, she knew she was beautiful. She possessed a symmetrical face, full lips, nice thighs, and a perky behind—all conforming to conventional beauty standards.

The problem wasn't her. The problem was—

“Ohhhhh-!”

“W-wha—who is that beauty?”

“Is she a supermodel or something? And look at the black-haired one behind her, what the hell?!”

“Ack—wait, sorry—I swear I wasn’t looking, honey!”

The cacophony of hormonal teenagers mingled with the voices of men far too old to be looking at Rias in such a way, and even the voices of some women too. Even those who had been looking at her ended up turning around to check out the beauty that had just appeared.

Not that she cared, of course. She did not care one bit, in fact! So what if Rias' bust was slightly—marginally—more pronounced?! That was only a sign of how empty her head was!

“Sona-tan…” No, please don’t look at me with such eyes, sister—you’ll only make it worse…! “Ah, look, it’s Ajuka’s kids!”

The blatant non-sequitur was painfully transparent to anyone with even a hint of sense, but Sona allowed it. Still, as far as distractions went, it was not a very good one if the objective was to lift her spirits.

Sona Sitri was as close to a sapiosexual as one could be. She could appreciate a nice set of abs and a defined jawline as much as the next girl, but such superficial aspects—especially for her race—were as trivial as the clothes one wore. As such, one of her childhood crushes—that is to say, her only and biggest childhood crush (no, anime characters did not count, Rias) had been none other than Ajuka Beelzebub.

That is, of course, until she discovered how much of an absolute social retard the man was.

Her sister was excitedly waving at her two future peers, and Sona found herself unconsciously fixing her appearance. It was obvious that her sister believed them to be good prospects for her peerage, and if she went full cynicism, she could go as far as to think that the fact Ajuka had the kids he helped be placed in the same school she and Rias would be attending was done as a favor to both Serafall and Sirzechs. Well, mostly Sirzechs, she was sure.

Either way, that was no reason to treat them badly. It was not their fault that they had been involved in the overprotective schemes her sister and uncle Sirzechs were always cooking up.

Still, the girl aside—she had a soft smile on her face that Sona could not say was a good sign or not—the boy appeared remarkably… displeased.

He was tall for his age and race, with tousled dark-blue hair and storm-gray eyes. His face seemed to be locked in a light sneer, as if incapable of producing any other expression.

Sona almost pitied him.

Because Serafall Leviathan hated frowns. And she took it as a personal mission to ‘flip those gloomy faces right-side up—just like a real magical girl should!’ Ugh.

The more Serafall spoke, though, the more her own expression seemed to be nearing a frown.

Sona hadn't paid much attention until now—there was something drawing her attention to the boy's roguish face, though she was not sure what exactly it was—but at seeing her sister like that, she disregarded her curiosity and focused back on the conversation.

She may not act as such most of the time, but there was no one in the world Sona Sitri loved more than Serafall Leviathan.

“When you say you never met him again…?”

The boy’s teeth clenched, in what must be a careful attempt at hiding how painfully annoyed he was.

"Look, Lady Leviathan,” he began, voice tight, “the timeline is simple. Lord Beelzebub appeared in our living room, erased our grandfather from this physical plane, healed Sakura—I am thankful for that, of course, please extend such feelings to him if you happen to meet him—then dropped two letters on the table with our new IDs, train tickets, and presumably fucked off after. I wouldn't know for sure—I was a bit preoccupied trying not to piss my—" He cut himself off abruptly, as if suddenly remembering who he was speaking to. Sona couldn't blame him. Serafall had that effect on people. "Apologies, Lady Leviathan. I got a bit too—"

Her sister raised a hand, silencing him, and Sona found the worried look on his face particularly amusing.

"No, don't—you don't have to apologize for anything, Ma—"

"We no longer use that surname. It’s Asutaroto now." The quiet girl spoke up for the first time, startling Sona, who'd nearly forgotten her presence entirely.

Serafall mouthed the name, nostrils flaring, before she simply exhaled while rubbing her nose in annoyance. "Right. Right." Maou Leviathan breathed in, used some of her intaken breath to curse Ajuka in three different languages, and Magical Girl Sera-tan breathed out.

It was always impressive how Serafall switched between those two personas so seamlessly.

"Well then, allow me to give you the quick rundown. Makiri Zolgen was a really bad man affiliated with some very evil Devils, so we sent Super Devil Ajuka to heroically put an end to his dastardly plans and save the day!" The strongest female devil punctuated each title with exaggerated gestures, as if mid-transformation sequence.

Sona could only mouth 'I'm so sorry' to the siblings.

"Unfortunately, Super Devil Ajuka has a critical weakness that makes him a complete fucking imbeci—I mean, it messes with his perception of interpersonal relations. However, fear not, for from this moment onwards you're under the protection of Magical Girl Sera-tan, the strongest female Devil desuuu~!!"

Sona mouthed off another three apologies. The boy stood there, almost shell-shocked. The girl… she was clapping.

"Thank you, thank you.” Serafall bowed as if before one of her audiences before, with sleight hand resembling a magician, she produced a summoning circle and held it on the tip of her fingers. “Jokes aside, here is my personal contact information. Please don't hesitate to call if you need something!"

The boy—she really needed to start referring to him by his name—accepted the parchment reluctantly, and for a moment, his face showed a sign that something happened, she was just not sure what.

"Now, I won't take any more of your time since the entrance ceremony is going to start soon—and speaking of, have I introduced you guys to my sister yet? This is Sona-tan, say hi, Sona-tan!"

Suddenly put on the spot like that, Sona couldn't help but quickly put her arm forward as she muttered an embarrassed, "H-hi!" The boy looked at her hand, and before she could notice the weird way she had raised it in her hurry, he had taken it and taken it to his lips, delivering a soft kiss to its back.

"My name is Asutaroto Shinji. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"L-likewise!" she said, pulling her hand back faster than was reasonable but far too flustered to care.

“…Asutaroto Sakura,” was the girl's greeting, which Sona returned with a small bow of her own and a repeat of her full name.

"Umumumumumu~…" Her sister… was now glaring at the boy. "This is my fault, I should have clarified it before, but Sona-tan is not included in that something, alright?! Sona-tan is the private property of Magical Girl Sera-tan forever and ever! See, see—look here... I have it on paper and everythi—"

She kicked her sister before she could pull out the paper she had made her sign when she was just nine years old, and, for the first time since she had met him—

Asutaroto Shinji smiled, and her heart skipped a beat.

On the ground, Serafall Leviathan complained loudly about ‘not thinking Sona-tan was into bad boys’, earning her another quick kick on her behind before she politely asked if the two of them would like to follow her to the entrance ceremony.

It was with no small amount of joy that she reveled under Rias' shocked gaze as she sat down with her two new friends.

Truly, life was looking up for Sona Sitri already.

- - -

One seat away from her, unknown to the innocent devil, a purple-haired girl was plotting how viable it was to assassinate the little sister of a Maou.

- - -

Beside her the boy stood, cursing his luck as usual. Nothing new there.

Feat: Acquired one of Serafall Leviathan's phone numbers

Reward: Silver Item Ticket

[Trinket of Chi]

|Uncommon Item|

Calamity Mod - A trinket held a devout monk who stood still until they became a statue. When standing still for more than 3 seconds you recover your energy/mana and health faster.